Teaser : Braving a series of jungle trap, Action Man is sent to the Amazon Rainforest to discover the whereabouts of a husband and wife ethnobotany team who are feared to be held captive by the international terrorist Dr. X !
Caution : Spoilers below
Review Done by : Jamar Miller
One of the great things about this series and Action Man, is it's truly a international show, each episode happends in another place on earth and sometimes in the same episode various places are visited. This episode starts in the Amazon Rainforest, in South America !
The screen pans around to see a research camp in the middle of the jungle and we hear the two research scientist reporting in on thier weekly check in to Secretary Norris and they are ecstatic! They tell Secretary Norris that they have made a break though finally , They have finally developed a serum from a special and rare flower that prevents cell deteriation and actually causes Cell regeneration!
Unfortunetly Secretary Norris is'nt the only one listening to the transmission, Dr X has hacked his way into the transmission as well, he quickly locates the Scientist location and then Jams the signal cutting off Secretary Norris and the two scientist. He then dispatches a team of Skull men to set up equiptment that includes traps and defenses around the camp
Secretary Norris is unable to continue the transmission and decides to send in a rescue team, so the Action Force is needed! So at Action Forces' Headquarters, secretary Norris begins briefing the team.
When Secretay Norris shows the team pictures of the two Research Scientist one can't help but to Look at the two scientist/researchers and say to themselfs Why oh why couldnt they have used a little more thinking and just named the two scientist Joseph Colton and Jane !! They look the same and would have been a nice nod to GI JOE, and to Josephs past as a adventurer and Jane as a scientist, They're both Americans too, as its stated in the episode and with the American Flag patch on thier uniforms. But Unfortunetly they're names are'nt Joe and Jane thier names are Dr. Will Fargo and Dr. Julia Fargo
As Secretary Norris debriefs the team he mentions that the scientist are Ethnobotonist, which triggers a flashback for Action Man, Action Man then tells the Action Force to his amazement that a ethnobotonist is a person who studies the utilization of native floral by indigenous people
Commentary :This episodes Flashback comes early on in this episode which is nice, because the viewer does'nt know when the flashback may occur in some episodes they happend in the middle, some in the beginning and some even have multiple times when flashbacks occurs, so it keeps you on your toes. Below is this episodes Memory Flashback, that Action Man has in this episode. Here are the memories he regains in this Mission !
So what do we learn through this? well not much but its a start. We learn that Action Man spent sometime in a university studying science and here he is reading the book Crime and Punishment ( which is revealed at the end of the show in the Live action VR segment ). So for this episode that is all that Action Man Regains of his memories , again not a lot but hey its only the second episode they dont want to reveal alot yet.
Secretary Norris then explains to Action Man that this serum that Dr. Will and Julia Fargo developed will help Action Man regain his memories as the serum regenerates cells. Combined with the fact that these people need to be found and rescued ,and this new revelation that Action Man would be able to regain his memories, Action Man and the Action Force are mobilized!
Natalie Flys Knuck and Action Man into the Amazon but before she is able to drop them off and land they discover DR. X's sub near by in the river. While back at the Research scientist base camp Dr. X walks into the main tent and takes the scientist and all thier work Hostage! Dr. X immediately destroys the electronic Location Beacon leaving Action Force without the ability to find the camp with thier electronic equipment and having to rely on thier own skills of search and rescue .
Dr. X then launches some heat seeking surface to air missiles at The helicopter that the Action Force is in but Natalie is able to narrowly out Maneuver them and then quickly drop off Knuck and Action Man.
Dr. X watches Knuck and Action Man through Cameras his Skullmen ( dont these guys look like Range Vipers) has set up and one by one Dr. X watches them both evade these traps. Back at the Research Camp Dr. X explains why he wants the serum. One so he can sell it to the worlds riches people who will pay millions to slow the ageing effect , increase their life spans significantly or even to cure Alheiztmers. The second reason is to prevent Action Man ever getting a hold of it. If Action Man was to ever get a hold of the serum it he would regain his lost memories and then be twice as dangerous as before! ( Now this statement is actually quite interesting as it’s the fist mention of anything about Action Mans lost memories being dangerous to Dr. X, its also some nice for shadowing of later events that would happened in the series and some that were revealed in the bible but never in the show ). Dr. X wants more serum created before he leaves but with the flower being so rare and hard to find it is very difficult.
Action Man and Knuck come across the camp finally and attack with full guns blazing at Dr. X , Gangrene and the Skull man troops.
Dr. X and his Skull man are losing so Dr. X decides if he can’t have the serum no one will and most importantly neither will Action Man get it either, so he destroys the Research tent and all its contents by blowing it up.Unfortunately insidee the tent is G.I. Jane,,,, Ooops I mean Dr. Julia Fargo and she is trapped by the flames and those flames are on a very fast path to some even more deadly explosive materials. Action Man runs into the tent to save her but mere moments after he runs in to save her the tent Erupts in a huge explosion!!!
Luckily Action Man survives and even manages to rescue GI JANE,,,, Ooops there I did it again sorry, by cutting a new door in the back of the tent. He then Gets the drop on Dr. X and with guns centered on Dr. X he triumphantly says “Your under arrest Dr. X “
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Action Man and Dr. X come face to face with fire in the foreground but then Dr. X reveals that his Bionic/ Robotic hand is a bomb that is set to explode in 20 seconds! Everyone runs and tries to put as much distance in between Dr. X’s hand and themselves! The bomb goes off just like Dr. X said it would and the explosion engulfs the area and the flames circle Knuck ,Action Man, and GI JOE …. AARGHHH I mean DR. Will Fargo and Dr. Julia Fargo. Luckily Natalie is nearby and arrives on the scene in the helicopter and airlifts the group out of there
Back at the base GI JOE AND GI JANE ( Gosh Darn it I just cant help myself ) I mean both Dr. Fargos explain that they have lost everything from their research and the flower is completely gone as the area which it grew is completely decimated. The serum that Action Man had hoped to be able to use to regain his memories is gone for good. So while the operation was successful as far as a rescue operation goes, the chance for Action Man to regain his memories are gone! Good thing though it’s only the second episode so we have 24 more episodes to figure things out still
Finale thoughts: When I originally saw the series I saw it way out of order and thus when things were revealed that built up on other things that were previously revealed, it was very confusing to me. Now that I have put all the episodes in order because I have them all now and now that I am watching them in order , I can now see how things are suppose to play off each previous episode and now it really makes it a lot more interesting and fun to watch. This was a show that had an over lapping story making the whole series one big story Arc of sorts, and in Animation we just don’t get that often. This was a good second episode, my only complaint about it is why didn’t they just call the Dr.s’ Joe and Jane and call the Skull man, Range vipers too!! This episode was written by series editor Phil Harnage , whose interview with Bob Forward can be found here :
